Friday, September 6, 2019

Taxpayers shouldn’t pay lawmakers’ sexual harassment settlements

Over the past 2 years lawmakers in Albany passed a
litany of laws targeting sexual harassment in the workplace. Among them are standards
concerning universal training, how claims are addressed in business-to-business
relations, a lengthening of the statute of limitations, and a lowering of the
burden of proof.

Coming with those laws was a lot of heavy-handed
preaching and concern from lawmakers. One couldn’t help but find their
accusations and stereotypes about the private sector to be offensive, even
comical, given the history of New York government – they are a group of men
(and women) who have proven through the years that some in their ranks get
drunk on their power and can’t keep their hands or thoughts to themselves.

For starters, consider 3 cases of local import JCOPE
(the Joint Commission on Public Ethics) settled this year.

In January, it levied a $10,000 civil penalty against
former senator Marc Panepinto who, in 2018, pleaded guilty to attempting to
cover-up unwanted sexual advances he made to a member of his staff.

In August, JCOPE settled, penalty-free, with
Panepinto’s former chief of staff, Chris Savage, who had conversations with a staff
member about future employment or monetary compensation in exchange for her
silence in the harassment investigation.

Also in August, JCOPE settled with former assemblywomen
Angela Wozniak who acknowledged she violated state law by making personnel
decisions related to an employee she had a sexual relationship with, her
legislative director who alleged that she had coerced him into that relationship.

It’s ironic that she followed in office Dennis
Gabryszak who “retired” in 2014 as he faced allegations of harassment from 7
women who worked on his staff.

Last month, the state settled with one of those
women for $125,000. Lawsuits brought by others affected by his behavior were
dismissed because the women had waited too long to make the claims. Had that
not happened, imagine the state’s payout to cover Gabryszak’s indiscretions.

The lawsuit filed by his successor’s aide is still
being considered -- expect a larger payout since sexual relations were involved.

The settlement with Gabryszak’s accuser and, one day,
Wozniak’s show something wrong with the current system: We – the taxpayers –
are footing the bill for the disgusting behavior and actions of lawmakers.

Since 2000, more than 30 sitting state lawmakers
have left office facing allegations of ethical misconduct. There are many more situations
involving their aides or managers within offices of the executive branch who
have abused their power. The amount spent on harassment settlements for all state
employees exceeded $11 million from 2008 through 2017.

In most cases, they found themselves or will find
themselves sheltered financially by public funds, money that could have been
spent instead on infrastructure, parks, and schools. It’s a sort of “get out of
jail free” card.

It shouldn’t be that way and it doesn’t have to be.
They should pay out for their own misdeeds.

Surprisingly, New York has made some headway in
that regard….some.

In his 2018 State of the State Address Governor
Andrew Cuomo said “no taxpayer funds should be used to pay for any public
official’s sexual harassment or misconduct — period. It is the bad act of the
individual, let the individual pay.”

The 2018-2019 state budget included that, requiring
officers and employees of the state to reimburse the state for any public
payment made upon a judgement of sexual harassment.

This is a very good start, but it doesn’t go far
enough.

The state still makes the payment and then has to
collect the money from the individual.

Could that happen in most cases?

No. If the settlement is large enough – since it’s
with the state first, it likely will be – it would hit a level that would force
the guilty party into bankruptcy, absolving him or her of the obligation.

Consider a $1 million settlement in 2010 when 2
women accused a supervisor at the Willard Drug Treatment Center of unwanted
advances. In similar cases, do you really think the accused would be able to
pay that back?

To fix the possibility of bankruptcy offering an
easy out, lawmakers should amend state law to allow confiscation or
cancellation of taxpayer-paid pensions from the guilty party, something other
states are considering.

The state could also initiate law to have the
employee, not the government, be the target of suits, ensuring the attorney
levying the charges can pursue a financial outcome more realistic to the
accused’s ability to pay.

Also, it should not be out of the question to
require, as a part of employment, lawmakers, managers and high-level employees
to hold a personal insurance policy related to harassment or contribute weekly
to a defined Employment Practices Liability Insurance plan specific to their
specific office or public entity. Those
policies would protect the taxpayers.

The state needs to go back to the drawing board and
add some teeth – these ideas and others -- to their well-intentioned attempt to
protect taxpayers. If not, the protections afforded now will still allow the bad
seeds of the world to get off Scot free while you and I as taxpayers won’t.

From the 09
September 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News